CP Week Star Profile

Name: Emily

Age: 3

Suburb: Kingsley

Wants to be: A Princess

Type of CP: Spastic Diplegia

What does Emily like to do for fun?
Loves playing with her dolls, having tea parties, reading her books, singing, dressing up and watching Night Garden!
She also loves to snuggle up with her sister at bed time and read books together.
She loves to go to the shops with her Mummy and have a Babycino!

To what extent does CP present a challenge?
Her mobility obviously represents a huge challenge, the ease of getting around, following her friends and doing things we take for granted.
The constant repetition of therapy, appointments and hospital visits is a challenge to everyone in our family and especially Emily.

How does Emily overcome these challenges?
Emily is very good at crawling! She has also mastered the art of using her walker, so in terms of getting around she always makes an effort.
Emily is very determined to do everything and so will always have a try first on her own, however sometimes she will call out “Help me” if she gets stuck.
However if she really wants something that she is unable to do or get she tells her very willing twin sister to help her!
We try and have a very positive “can do” attitude in our house!

What is one thing Emily would like people to understand about CP?
In our case, Spastic Diplegia means that while Emily’s legs don’t work quite as well as they should (Although if you ask Emily, she will tell you her legs work perfectly fine!) her intelligence, her sense of humour, her feelings, are just the same as everyone else.
Look beyond the disability and see her ability.

What are some of your proudest moments with Emily?
One very proud moment was when Emily started walking with her walker, as it gave her a new sense of freedom and independence.

We love it when Emily does something and she tells us “I did it Mummy, I can do it!

Although for us, we see each and every milestone that she achieves as the biggest achievements and our proudest moments.

Thanks to Emily's mum, Jenny, for sharing Emily's story!